CSotD: FOMO and Four More
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Filling in for Mike Peterson while he’s on assignment to the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, I’m Brian Fies.
Comic-Con International is happening in San Diego this weekend without me. I’ve been several times (I took the photo above last year), the event is run by nice people who’ve been very good to me, but I’ve come to feel like I don’t need to be there unless I have business to do. Which I don’t this year.
Still, I find myself missing friends who are there, and gripped with FOMO: fear of missing out. What I’ve learned my last couple of visits is that attending Comic-Con doesn’t ease the FOMO. You’re still missing out. You have no chance of getting into that hot screening or cool panel because their audiences lined up at 5 a.m. yesterday. Plus, travel and lodging aren't cheap. Unless I’m doing a panel, signing a book, or (ahem) vying for an award, I can’t justify it.
In 2015, the queue of people waiting for Con-exclusive Legos snaked a half mile out the back of the Convention Center. This was at 7 o’clock in the morning, three hours before opening. To buy a box of Legos.
And yet I’ve still got the itch . . .
Relevant to Comic Strip of the Day, I’ve always been surprised by the small presence newspaper and magazine cartooning have at Comic-Con. There’s not as much crossover and camaraderie between them and comic book creators as you’d expect, despite some talented people having done both. Video game makers, TV and movie studios, animators, costumers and cosplayers, and toy manufacturers have all grown to take up huge real estate. But comic books’ older cousins, the comic strips, typically get two or three panel discussions (out of dozens), a handful of veterans tabling in Artists' Alley, and no more than two or three vendors selling original comic strip art. Outside of MAD Magazine, I don't recall ever seeing anything that touches on gag cartooning. That’s it.
The National Cartoonists Society puts up a big fancy booth fully stocked with members. They do commissions and book signings, and it’s a classy, high-profile piece of outreach. Luann cartoonist Greg Evans, who I believe lives in the area, is usually on hand. In fact, Luann and her friends frequently attended Comic-Con in his strip, though not in recent years. Probably couldn’t get tickets.
The NCS booth in 2014. Greg Evans is in the blue plaid in front, next to MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond. Behind in the green shirt is Family Circus cartoonist Jeff Keane. I don’t know who the bearded man at left is, sorry. [EDIT: In the comments, comics scholar D.D. Degg says the mystery man might be Making It cartoonist Keith Robinson.]
I hope my friends who are there to sign and sell things sign and sell a lot. I hope my Graphic Medicine pals win an Eisner Award tonight, and still have a great time even if they lose to Nick Sousanis’s Unflattening (just a guess). I hope the hot pretzels at the snack carts are less rubbery than the bumps on a Klingon’s forehead.
If anyone at Comic-Con is reading this, get out of the building once in a while for fresh air and quiet. I recommend ducking out the back and walking west toward Seaport Village; it’s a nice little shopping area on the waterfront and nobody ever goes that direction. Have fun without me.
Fo' Mo'
Four more things that caught my eye this morning.
I began caretaking CSOTD with a guideline, if not a rule: I wanted to focus on newly produced strips by living creators rather than so-called "zombie strips." However, I noticed today's Peanuts rerun from 1969 because this week's plot, about the Little Red-Haired Girl moving away, was the main story arc in the recent feature film from Blue Sky Studios. In fact, if you follow the link in the previous sentence, you can see today's strip atop the trailer from the movie it inspired (I'm still baffled that Blue Sky thought The Who's "Baba O'Riley" ("Teenage Wasteland") was the ideal mood setter for Peanuts).
I didn't remember this 1969 story line when I saw the movie, and thought the filmmakers had invented it. While I generally liked the movie, this melodramatic, anticlimactic plot engine was a point I held against it. Now I learn it was Schulz's all along. All I can say is that the same story I find charming and heart-tugging in the strip seems (to me) a little dull and contrived in the movie. Cognitive dissonance consumes me.
I've been in situations similar to the one facing Maeve in Sandra Bell-Lundy's Between Friends. Jim is a guy Maeve dated before she beat him out for a promotion at work. Now Jim's a pain in the neck, and Maeve sees an opportunity to get rid of him by recommending him for a new job in Paris–only to realize she wants the job herself.
In my case, someone I supervised asked me to recommend him/her for a job at another company that I told him/her about only because I wanted him/her to go away. Then I realized the job looked pretty good. My outcome: I passed on the opportunity, gave him/her a sincere recommendation based on the acceptable quality of his/her work rather than his/her repugnant personality, he/she got the job, and everyone was happy–except maybe the people at the other company who had to work with him/her. We'll see if Maeve's outcome is as satisfying.
The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee by John Hambrock often involves mad scientist hijinks, but always brings the action back to earth to spend time with Edison's family. Beneath the sci-fi filigree is a solid family strip. After a two-week plot that involved taking Edison's muddled grandfather Orville to a disastrous baseball game, the Lees settled into the very ordinary dilemma of maximizing their value at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
I don't particularly relate to being sucked into a computer program Tron-style (one recent story line), but I have sat at that table eyeing another plate of chicken wings I didn't really need. Karen and I joke that the buffets really make their profit on us, since we're usually full after the first plate while the guy at the next table is working on his fourth. I like that Orville sees gluttony as not an option but an obligation, and "Bubba's Country Outhouse" is a pretty funny name.
Finally, while I resist publicly wading into politics myself, I'm happy to recommend Michael Cavna's article in today's Washington Post on how nine leading political cartoonists tackle the challenge of Trump. It's an interesting insight into how these cartoonists approach their jobs. Check it out!
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